New Mexico New Mexico/Memphis Memphis Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

Kelly Wise and Earl Barron each scored 16 points and Memphis used a strong inside game to beat New Mexico 81-63 Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the NIT.

Memphis (20-14) will face Tulsa, a 77-75 winner over Mississippi State, in the tournament semifinals Tuesday in New York.

The Tigers have come a long way since a 4-8 start that included early season losses to Tennessee, Ole Miss, Stanford and Arkansas.

"I'm going to say this for this program, where we are, this is good," Memphis coach John Calipari said. "Playing in postseason, advancing in postseason, now they know they can do it."

The semifinals game will mark a return to the New York area for Calipari, who compiled a 72-112 record in parts of three seasons with the NBA's New Jersey Nets. Calipari is in his first season with Memphis.

New Mexico (21-13) was unable to contain the Tigers' dominant play inside.

Lobo coach Fran Fraschilla credited the Tigers' rebounding, especially their 25 offensive rebounds, as the difference.

"The biggest difference in the game was offensive rebounding," Fraschilla said. "I don't know how many putback baskets they had, but it was a back breaker for us.

"There were opportunities for us to climb back in the game, but you can't give a good team like (Memphis) those opportunities. We gave them too many cheap baskets on the offensive boards, and that's to their credit."

Marcus Moody scored 12 points for Memphis. Shannon Forman and reserve Shamel Jones each added 10.

Wise finished with 14 rebounds and Barron had 12 as Memphis outrebounded the Lobos 49-32.

Eric Chatfield led New Mexico with 17 points. Ruben Douglas scored 16.

Wise's inside play helped Memphis to an early seven-point lead. The Tigers built their lead to 10 points three times in the first half before settling for a 39-30 advantage at the break.

Memphis went on a 12-3 run early in the second half and extended a nine-point lead to 51-33 with 16:27 left. Forman punctuated the run with a putback of a missed free throw.

With Wise sidelined with foul trouble with 12:27 left, the Tigers went inside to Barron, who scored 10 points in a four-minute span and helped Memphis maintain a 14- to 18-point lead.

Memphis built its lead to 22 points twice in the second half and limited the Lobos to 38.7 percent shooting.

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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard

New Mexico Clubhouse

Memphis Clubhouse

NIT schedule, results